Files & Nginx

Now it's time to upload the Community Template files, configure Nginx, and set up SSL. Make sure you've completed Getting Started before continuing.

info

This guide uses WinSCP for file transfers and editing. Any SFTP client will work.

Upload Files

1. In your /home directory on the server, create a new folder called communitytemplate.
   (You can name it anything - just remember the name for future steps.)

2. Extract the zip you downloaded from shadowdevs.com and copy its contents into /home/communitytemplate using WinSCP.

Nginx Configuration

Open /etc/nginx/sites-available/default in WinSCP. Delete all existing content and replace it with the following, updating the domain and port to match your setup:

server {

  server_name community.yourdomain.com; # Replace with your domain

  location / {
    proxy_pass http://localhost:5173; # Match your PORT from .env
    proxy_http_version 1.1;
    proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
    proxy_set_header Connection 'upgrade';
    proxy_set_header Host $host;
    proxy_cache_bypass $http_upgrade;
    proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
  }

  error_page 502 =500 /502.html;
  location = /502.html {
    root /home/communitytemplate/static;
  }
}

Next, open /etc/nginx/nginx.conf and add client_max_body_size 50G; inside the http { } block. If you haven't edited this file before, it will look something like this (add the line near the bottom of the block):

http {

	##
	# Basic Settings
	##

	sendfile on;
	tcp_nopush on;
	types_hash_max_size 2048;

	include /etc/nginx/mime.types;
	default_type application/octet-stream;

	##
	# SSL Settings
	##

	ssl_protocols TLSv1 TLSv1.1 TLSv1.2 TLSv1.3;
	ssl_prefer_server_ciphers on;

	##
	# Logging Settings
	##

	access_log /var/log/nginx/access.log;

	##
	# Gzip Settings
	##

	gzip on;

	##
	# Virtual Host Configs
	##

	include /etc/nginx/conf.d/*.conf;
	include /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/*;

	client_max_body_size 50G;
}

Adjust 50G if you want to restrict the maximum upload size.

Save and restart Nginx:

sudo systemctl restart nginx

Verify with: sudo systemctl status nginx

Issue SSL Certificate

Run Certbot to get a free SSL certificate. Replace community.yourdomain.com with your actual domain:

sudo certbot --nginx -d community.yourdomain.com

You'll be asked for your email address (not shown publicly). When prompted about redirects, select option 2 to redirect all HTTP traffic to HTTPS.

Set up automatic renewal:

sudo certbot renew --dry-run

Database

No action needed here. Community Template automatically initializes the MongoDB database on first startup - it creates all required collections, indexes, and seeds default settings automatically.